The present invention relates to washer controls, wash cycles and automatic washers.
In appliances that are used to treat various substrates, such as laundry appliances that treat fabrics and dishwashers that treat dishware, oftentimes different chemistries are added to the appliance during different treatment cycles or at different times during a given treatment cycle, depending on the treatment function to be performed, and depending on the item being treated, for example. It is known to provide a washer and control where specific stains are identified, and a wash cycle is carried out based on the particular stain in combination with additional, default parameters, as disclosed in U.S. published patent application US2003/0154560.
Storage and dispensing of specific cleaning constituents into a laundry appliance is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,075. Temperature and water level sensors are utilized to determine when various constituents are to be dispensed.
Where the bleaching agents and the detergent are introduced separately, only rudimentary washer controls have been provided to automatically dispense the bleaching agent additive at a certain predetermined point in the wash cycle, regardless of the type of stain or soil present in the wash load. Even though different stains and soils are removed more effectively with different types of detergents or bleaching agents, or combinations of the two provided at varying times during the wash cycle, controls for washers have not been provided to take advantage of the more effective combinations or times of delivery.
It would be an improvement in the art if there were provided a control for an automatic washer that would use sensors to determine when chemistry should be released into the washer, which would allow the user to customize the washer to their specific needs and which would deliver the chemistry at the correct time to maximize the cleaning potential of the chemistry.